“The Reptile” leads the Astros to historic no hitter in Philadelphia. World Series is tied 2–2
Houston Astros 5 Philadelphia Phillies 0, 2nd November 2022.
Houston Astros 5 Philadelphia Phillies 0, 2nd November 2022.
Following the rip roaring and runaway success of my coverage so far of the 2022 World Series that has seen my fellow reporters here at Sports Unillustrated stating “This is the best reporting of a World Series since Babe Ruth was in short trousers” and “The most crooked and drug fuelled desperate swing for the fences since Barry Bonds in his pomp”, I’ve decided to change it up somewhat for Game 4 and provide an as it happens, written in real time, inning by inning analysis. Links to my unrivalled and unparalleled coverage of the World Series hence far can be found at the bottom of this article and I hope you enjoy this left field take on this evening’s sporting entertainment.
Let’s play ball!
Astros 0 Phillies 0, bottom of the 1st Inning — 12.24am
The home town Phillies are in their pleasing red pinstripe uniform. The Astros are dressed in their all orange shirts. Pleasing all round and I feel a humdinger of a game on the horizon. In the absence of my Dodgers dressed in blue, I’m rooting for the underdog Phillies.
A scoreless first inning, a strike out each for starting pitchers Aaron Nola (Phillies) and Cristian Javier (Astros). If I said, again, I feel a humdinger of a game in prospect it’d be as faintly ridiculous as me sitting here in the middle of the night trying to make you believe I know anything, anything about the game of the baseball! So in that vein, and as I wait for these dreadful American TV adverts to finish, Nola’s curveball has a fizz missing from his Game 1 appearance in this World Series and Javier’s fastball?
Whew!
Astros 0 Phillies 0, bottom of the 2nd Inning — 12.50am
As the FOX TV coverage panned around Citizens Bank Park in the middle of the 2nd inning there was a lone Astros fan, bearded and arms crossed tightly amid the wild celebrations around him. He cut a lonely figure did our Houston friend as his team, via a clubbed double from bare handed Game 1 hero Kyle Tucker, a stealing of 3rd base and Christian Vasquez being hit by a pitch and advancing freely to 1st base, his visiting team had a chance to break the game wide open. But that fizzing curveball of Aaron Nola accounted for both Aledmys Diaz and Philadelphia native Chas McCormick (both strike outs), and the Astros blow their chance of an early lead.
According to Hall of Famer John Smoltz on co-commentary, Cristian Javier’s fastball is “electric” and despite walking the dangerous Bryce Harper (he didn’t, it was a terrible call by the home plate umpire and should have been called a strikeout), Javier duly dispatched Nick Castellanos and one of last night’s home run kings Alec Bohm, and it’s scoreless after 2 in Philadelphia.
Astros 0 Phillies 0, bottom of the 3rd Inning — 1.11am
I feel a “pitchers duel” coming along and that prospect couldn’t please me enough. Nola has a 1–2–3 inning and his strike out of rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena being his 4th so far in an evening of 47 pitches to date. Similarly, Javier notches his 4th strike out of the evening by dispatching slugger Kyle Schwarber back to the bench “by way of a K” and with the youngster totalling 49 pitches so far, both starting pitchers have a lot left in the tank and a long, tight scoreless game could lay ahead. Bravo!
Astros 0 Phillies 0, bottom of the 4th Inning — 1.31am
Aaron Nola’s 10 pitch 4th inning comprises of a beautiful use of the baseball vernacular in a “loud out” as the bare handed Kyle Tucker lasers a beautiful crack of the bat directly to Nick Castellanos and with Aledmys Diaz grounding out to Alec Bohm at 3rd base, the Astros again leave 2 runners on base who don’t score despite Yuli Gurriel and Christian Vasquez cracking loud singles.
On the other side of the baseball, the Astros Cristian Javier faced the heart of the home team Phillies order and in just 13 pitches sat down JT Realmuto, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos, and all by blistering strikeouts taking his tally for the evening to 7 big K’s. Astonishing inning from the 25 year old from the Dominican Republic nicknamed “El Reptil” or “The Reptile”.
Astros 5 Phillies 0, bottom of the 5th Inning — 2.06am
After the missed opportunity of the 2nd inning, the Astros blow the game wide open in the top of the 5th and chase Aaron Nola out the game. Chas McCormick gets a valuable if scruffy in field hit, Jose Altuve crushes a single into centre field before Jeremy Pena loads the bases with another hard hit into the outfield and ending Nola’s night on a huge low after such a promising start. Phillies relief pitcher Jose Alvarado hits almost namesake Yordan Alvarez to plate the first run of the night before Alex Bregman tattoos a huge double to right field (scoring Altuve and Pena), Kyle Tucker’s “Sacrifice Fly” scores Alvarez to make the score 4–0 before Yuli Gurriel bats in Bregman with a groundball through the 2nd and 3rd base gap to extend the visitors lead to 5–0. Alvarado finally stems the bleeding for the home team Phillies by striking out Christian Vasquez and Aledmys Diaz to end the inning and perhaps, a defining and game winning one for the visiting Astros.
The bottom of the 5th inning is a pitching masterclass from the 25 year old Javier as he notches both his 8th and 9th strikeouts of the evening (as well as his 4th and 5th in a row after the 3 strikeouts that wrapped up the Phillies 4th inning) and with Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott sat down on strikeouts and Jean Segura on a weak pop up, the hurler from the Dominican Republic has pitched 5 shut out and NO HIT innings so far in an incredible performance for the Astros, and now he has the added bonus of a 5 run lead.
Astros 5 Phillies 0, bottom of the 6th Inning — 2.30am
Andrew Bellatti pitches a clean inning for the Phillies, dispatching Chas McCormick, Jose Altuve and Jeremy Pena in order and in just 10 stress free minutes to keep the score line at 5–0 but the no hit train keeps on rolling for Cristian Javier. Three consecutive weak ground ball outs from last night’s home run hitting hero Brandon Marsh, Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins, and in just 18 6th inning pitches means after 6 innings, the young man is pitching a World Series “no hitter” and whilst I don’t expect him to continue (his pitch count now stands at 95), this has been an incredible performance thus far. 6 no hit innings in a World Series!
Bravo young man.
Astros 5 Phillies 0, bottom of the 7th Inning — 2.49am
Before baseball’s pleasingly traditional “7th inning stretch”, Phillies relief pitcher David Robertson follows his bullpen pitching mate Andrew Bellatti with a dominating and clean top of the 7th inning as he sits down the heart of the Astros batting order in just 10 pitches. Record setting Cristian Javier’s no hitter is in the record books as he’s replaced by hard throwing Bryan Abreu, and Javier’s Dominican Republic countryman follows in his footsteps as he strikes out the heart of the Phillies batting order (JT Realmuto, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos) in a dominating and destructive inning that leaves the Astros needing just 6 outs for victory and, perhaps historically, they’re on the cusp of a team “no hitter”.
Astros 5 Phillies 0, bottom of the 8th Inning — 3.05am
Zach Eflin pitches in relief for the home team Phillies in the top of the 8th and continues the remarkable trend of the evening by striking out all 3 Astros batters who come to the plate (Christian Vazquez, Aledmys Diaz and Chas McCormick) but his team needs runs and they need them quickly.
Writing this in real time, the Phillies need a hit let alone a run and Rafeal Montero pitches yet another clean inning for the Astros as he dispatches Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott and Jean Segura in order, and the visitors from Houston are just 3 clean no hit outs away from recording a remarkable piece of baseball history.
BALLGAME!
Astros 5 Phillies 0, bottom of the 9th Inning — 3.30am
Keeping his team loosely in the game and with a history breaking as well as history making final 9th inning rally all remaining possibilities, lefty Brad Hand with his sweeping deliveries gives up a scorcher of a base hit to Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena but nothing else, before Ryan Pressly does what Ryan Pressly does, closing out the game without a hit and as Fox TV’s Joe Buck immediately exclaimed:
“The Astros have a World Series no hitter!”
From 7 runs, 5 homeruns and shutting out the Astros last evening, the Phillies are “no hit” this evening by an Astros team who notch a combined 14 strikeouts and give up just 3 walks in only the second time in the 118 years of World Series baseball that a team has thrown a combined no hitter.
In the final words of Hall of Famer John Smoltz this evening:
“This crazy, beautiful and unpredictable sport of baseball!”
Amen to that.
Postscript and post match quotes (taken from www.mlb.com)
Ryan Pressly, Houston Astros
“You get slapped in the face [in Game 3],” Pressly said at the crowded locker stalls, “and you want to come back today and make a statement. You try to have the mind of a goldfish in this game.”
Dusty Baker, Houston Astros Manager
“He was electric,” said Baker, who has now been in the visitors’ dugout for two of the three postseason no-hitters (also as manager of the Reds in Halladay’s 2010 no-hitter). “He threw the ball up, down, and that shows you that the best pitch in baseball is still the well-located fastball. He was calm, cool. Christian Vázquez called a great game for him. I think that’s the first time I’ve seen two guys with the same first name as a battery. So maybe that was part of it.”
Cristian Javier, “El Reptil”, Houston Astros
“We just stayed focused, just came out motivated after [Tuesday’s] loss,” Javier said through an interpreter. “We had positive energy in the clubhouse. We told ourselves that we would come in today to win.”
“It’s funny, my parents told me I was going to throw a no-hitter,” said Javier, “and thanks to God, I was able to accomplish that.”
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to delve into the cave of wonders that is my archives here or linked below are Games 1, 2 and 3 of the World Series hence far:
Blowout in Game 3 as the Phillies shut out the Astros
Houston Astros 0 Philadelphia Phillies 7, 1st November 2022.medium.com
Framber Valdez spins a gem as the Astros level up the World Series at 1–1
Philadelphia Phillies 2 Houston Astros 5, 29th October 2022.medium.com
Phillies take Game 1 on a wild night in Houston
Philadelphia Phillies 6 Houston Astros 5, 28th October 2022.medium.com